On the third of September, 16 million Germans watched a TV debate between incumbent German chancellor Angela Merkel from the Christian Democrats (CDU) and her contestant Martin Schulz from the Social Democrats (SPD). The debate took place three weeks before…
Continue reading The German Election Debate: Why What Wasn’t Said Matters
I’m not sure quite how to say this. The Australian Government has decided that the ability of same-sex couples to marry will be determined by a nationwide survey. Forms will shortly be sent to registered voters and on Wednesday 15…
Continue reading Australian Government Chickens Out on Gay Marriage
The following post was written on my personal blog, the day before I enlisted into National Service (NS), a two year conscription military service every male citizen of Singapore has to go through. Exactly two years later, and recently out…
Suppressing protests by use of force does not attain peace but suppressed violence. Truth is, the latter is more detrimental than the former. Contrary to the belief in the minds of many, peaceful demonstrations as a tool for passing a…
Continue reading Police Brutality in Kenya Violates Human Rights
Wars and conflicts have forced more people to flee their countries than any time since World War II. In Europe, more than a million migrants arrived in 2015, sparking a ‘migration crisis’ as countries struggled to cope with the numbers.…
Continue reading Why the EU-Turkey Deal Violates Fundamental Rights
IFLRY Online is IFLRY’s new initiative to allow liberals from all over the world to interact with each other more online. In that spirit, IFLRY Vice President Nickolas Pagonakis is organising regular online seminars, in which different people in the…
A prerequisite for democracy is the freedom of speech and expression. Even though this is widely acknowledged, we sometimes forget the whole picture. The representation of all groups in a society is not only important for the conversation climate and…
Continue reading The Lack of Young People’s Representation Is a Problem For Democracy
Singapore has been hit by political scandal. Yes, that clean, quiet, stable, protest-free city state; the one that’s supposedly good for business because there’s no political unrest and no independent trade unions. That Singapore. Yet, if you listened to the…
Continue reading What the Lee Family Dispute Says About Singapore’s Politics
While travelling abroad and attending international events, I’ve encountered a range of different views about the Catalan independence process. Many are well-informed and sympathetic, however a few compare Catalonia’s with other struggles for independence – that may seem similar at…
In our generation pride parades are considered by some people to be a capitalistic celebration, as it is all about drinks, branded underwear, rainbow products and “dirty” corporate sponsors. For some other people there is no need to organize pride…
